White House Flags Jobs, Deficit Concerns

The administration's top economic officials suggested they would consider pushing to extend unemployment benefits that expire later this year, underscoring White House concerns that job creation is likely to lag behind a broader recovery.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Sunday that signs are emerging that the economy is starting to turn around, but he cited private economists' predictions that unemployment rates wouldn't start to fall until the second half of next year. He also suggested that the current budget deficit was unsustainable, and both he and Lawrence Summers, the White House's top economic adviser, declined to rule out future tax increases.

Asked whether President Barack Obama could keep his campaign pledge to hold down taxes for those earning less than $250,000 a year, Mr. Geithner didn't respond directly.

"We can't make those judgments yet about what exactly it's going to take" to reduce the deficit, he said on ABC News's "This Week." "People have to understand that we have to bring those deficits down."

The Congressional Budget Office has projected that the federal budget deficit would hit $1.8 trillion for the current fiscal year ending Sept. 30.